Mike Hailwood MBE

Published: Monday, 8 June 2009, 4:38PM

In many people’s eyes, whether they are young or old, Mike Hailwood is regarded as the greatest motorcycle rider of all time and the way he scorched around the Isle of Man TT Course certainly lends sufficient weight to that theory.

It was 1958 when he made his TT debut at just the age of 18 but his talent was there for all to see as he claimed a first time podium in the Lightweight 250cc race held on the smaller Clypse Course.

His first win came just three years later and not only did he win the Lightweight 125cc race (Honda’s first ever win) he also took the Lightweight 250cc and Senior victories to claim an unprecedented hat-trick, the first time this feat had ever been achieved.

By 1962 he had become a works MV Agusta rider and he rewarded the Italian concern with four straight victories in the Senior race although he was out of luck in the other classes during this period.

A switch back to Honda came in 1966 and he immediately chalked up a Lightweight/Senior double chalking up even more lap records. At home on any machine, he added another treble to his name in 1967 to become the most successful rider ever and set a new outright lap record that wouldn’t be bettered until 1975.

At the end of 1967 he retired from motorbikes and switched to cars although he was forced to stop after a serious leg injury in 1974.

However, he hadn’t finished with two wheels and made a fairytale comeback in 1978 when he took the Formula 1 race on a Ducati for his tenth world title.

He was out of luck for the remainder of the week but returned for one final year in 1979 and recorded his 14th win in a record breaking Senior race before losing out in the Classic race by a miniscule margin of 3.4 seconds.

He then retired from the sport for good but tragically lost his life, along with his daughter, in a road traffic accident in 1981 when a lorry turned into his path.

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